Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
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Tuesday Volume 578 1 April 2014 No. 146 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 1 April 2014 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2014 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 703 1 APRIL 2014 704 Mr Hunt: The most damaging thing for patient care House of Commons would be a pay award, which the hon. Gentleman sounds like his is supporting, that would mean the Tuesday 1 April 2014 potential loss of 6,000 nursing jobs from our front line. That would be incredibly bad for patients and incredibly bad for nurses. All nurses are getting a minimum 1% The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock rise. That is the right thing to do. That is supported by the shadow Chancellor but not, apparently, by the PRAYERS shadow Health Secretary. 20. [903439] Nadhim Zahawi (Stratford-on-Avon) (Con): [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] In a report published by the King’s Fund last month, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust was highlighted as a leading example of compassionate BUSINESS BEFORE QUESTIONS care for the frail elderly. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating the trust’s staff on the move away TRANSPORT FOR LONDON BILL [LORDS] from tick-box targets, and visit the trust to see this new Second Reading opposed and deferred until Tuesday emergency care model in practice? 8 April (Standing Order No. 20). Mr Hunt: I much enjoyed a recent dinner where I had the chance to meet a consultant from South Warwickshire Oral Answers to Questions NHS Foundation Trust. One of the discussions I remember having with him was how inside the NHS the definition of success for a hospital was in the past too narrowly focused on targets and financial balance, and not enough HEALTH on patient safety, compassionate care and clinical outcomes. He, and many other people in the NHS, welcome the change that this Government have made in the past The Secretary of State was asked— year to change that balance. Compassionate Care Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab): Does the Secretary of State agree that compassionate care begins 1. Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con): with being able to see a GP? In areas such as mine, GP What steps he is taking to improve compassionate care appointments are increasingly harder to get. In fact, in the NHS. [903418] one practice has had its contract rescinded because of its failures. Does he now regret scrapping the target The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): allowing patients to see a GP within 48 hours? The Government have made it a key priority to restore a culture of compassionate care throughout our NHS. Mr Hunt: I am interested and rather astonished that Ten thousand nurses and midwives will have taken part the hon. Lady dares to mention the words “GP” and in a new leadership programme that champions patient- “contract” in the same sentence. It was Labour’s GP focused compassionate care. Pilots are testing whether contract changes in 2004 that made it disastrously more all nurses should spend time on the wards prior to a difficult for people to see their GP and destroyed the nursing degree. link between patients and doctors by getting rid of named GPs. She will be pleased to know that from Andrew Selous: Will the Secretary of State join me in today we are reintroducing named GPs for the over-75s, congratulating NHS staff, who are shifting the priorities which is big step forward in making it easier for people of the NHS culture towards compassionate care and to see their GP. away from a tick-box culture? Does he agree with Robert Francis, who says that compassionate care very Andrew George (St Ives) (LD): Although the Secretary often saves money? of State says that he is getting rid of tick-box targets, new targets are being introduced, including hourly ward Mr Hunt: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Last rounding for nurses and the introduction of a requirement week I was in one of the safest hospitals in the world, for nurses to undertake a year as a care assistant. Would Virginia Mason hospital in Seattle, which has cut litigation it not be better to depend on the professionalism of the claims by three quarters since it introduced safer care. nursing profession? We have fantastic hospitals in this country too, such as Salford Royal. The truth is that safer care is better value Mr Hunt: That is exactly what we are doing. There is for money: it means that more money can be spent on no target to introduce hourly rounding, but there is very the front line, not on litigation. good evidence from the hospitals that have it, such as Salford Royal, that it results in the buzzer going off less Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab): The Secretary often, calmer wards and problems being nipped in the of State is not showing much compassion towards bud. People are given food and water before they feel hard-working NHS staff, who have a 1% pay rise. One the need to ask for it and we end up with much better year on from the top-down reforms, what does he think and safer care. That is something the hon. Gentleman of the survey showing that 69% of front-line staff think should welcome. We certainly want to work with the his reforms are damaging patient care? nursing profession to ensure we deliver that. 705 Oral Answers1 APRIL 2014 Oral Answers 706 NHS Reorganisation learn that it was vastly greater under the last Labour Government. We are paring that down precisely because 2. Mr David Crausby (Bolton North East) (Lab): we want money to be spent on the front line. What his most recent estimate is of the cost to the Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con): Does the Secretary public purse of reorganisation in the NHS. [903419] of State share my hope that the Government’s joint commitment to increasing NHS spending and dealing The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): with the legacy of private finance initiative debt will According to official figures, the new structure set up by help areas such as Gosport, which is living under the the Health and Social Care Act 2012 will save £5.5 billion umbrella of a huge PFI hospital that was approved in this Parliament and £1.5 billion every year after that, under the last Government and is sucking up most of all of which will be reinvested in front-line care. the NHS budget? Mr Crausby: Given that he promised in 2010 that Mr Hunt: PFI debt is costing the NHS more than there would be no top-down reorganisation of the £1 billion every year. In some cases that money was well NHS, how can the Minister justify spending billions of spent, but it was often very poorly spent. My hon. pounds on top-down reorganisation on the day on Friend is absolutely right: we want the money to be which Simon Stevens, the new chief executive of NHS spent on front-line care, which is why we have drawn a England, has warned that the NHS is facing the biggest line under the appalling deals negotiated by the last “budget crunch in its 66-year history”? Government. We are spending money where it should be spent, in order to help patients. Mr Hunt: As Simon Stevens is starting today, I think that this is a good moment at which to welcome him to Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab): It is a year to the day his post. He is an outstanding individual, and I know since the Government’s reorganisation took effect, and that we all wish him well in what will be a challenging now that the dust has settled, we can see the full scale of but incredibly important job. its folly. There are 163 more NHS organisations than As for the reorganisation, the official figures make there were before, four times more managers are being clear that it is saving more than £1 billion every year paid the very highest salaries than the Government during the present Parliament—money that is being planned for, and 4,000 staff received redundancy payments reinvested in the provision of 1,600 more nurses, 1,700 only to be rehired by the new organisations that the more midwives, 1,800 more health visitors and nearly Government had created. Is not the reason why the 8,000 more doctors than we had under Labour. I am NHS is the only public service that cannot honour a afraid that that shows that Labour has not learned the 1% pay increase for its hard-working staff the fact that lessons of Mid Staffs. Labour Members still want to these Ministers lost control of their own reorganisation, turn the clock back and spend all that money on and it has now wasted billions of pounds? administration. Mr Hunt: I think that the right hon. Gentleman Mr Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con): Does my right needs to look at the figures. The reorganisation, which hon. Friend agree that savings that have been made he opposed through thick and thin, means that the through greater effectiveness and efficiency, and that NHS is spending less on administration and bureaucracy. can be ploughed back into patient care, should be If he questions that, may I ask how he thinks we found warmly welcomed? Does he not think that such action the money to pay for 8,000 more doctors and 15,000 is far preferable to the bizarre suggestion by a former more clinicians, if it was not by getting rid of primary Labour Health Minister that people should be charged care trusts and strategic health authorities? That is why £10 a month to visit their GPs, which would compromise there are now 2.5 million more diagnostic tests and Nye Bevan’s founding principle of a free health service? 4 million more out-patient appointments every year.